With the decisive month of February at hand, the Marcellus and West Genesee wrestling teams ventured out to two separate venues last Saturday for the start of the Section III championship rounds.
Marcellus made its way to seventh place among 14 entrants in the sectional Class B meet at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, earning 97 points, though it was well off South Jefferson’s winning total of 260.5 points.
The Mustangs’ Jon Cavaretta earned the 220-pound championship, improving to 26-7 on the season. He pinned David Kiernan (Homer) in the quarterfinal and Jason Bond (Mexico) in just 1:08 in the semifinals before a title match where he took 2:49 to finish off Cortland’s Paul Turco.
Ben Hood, at 106 pounds, got to third place when he held off Seth Gilbert (Phoenix) 4-2 in the consolation bracket final. Zach Ruggles did the same at 113 pounds, winning a 9-7 classic over Kyle Snyder (South Jefferson) to finish third.
John Dunn (195 pounds) finished fourth, while Sam Rice beat Dane George (Cortland) 6-1 for fifth place at 106 pounds. Nate Long (132 pounds) and Kevin Morrissey (160 pounds) both had sixth-place efforts.
Going to Cicero-North Syracuse for the Class AA meet, the Wildcats picked up 96 points to get eighth place in a 10-team field. Baldwinsville, with 235 points, easily claimed the top spot.
Both Tyler Heggelke, at 120 pounds, and Connor Grome, at 132, made it to the championship round, only to get stopped in the finals.
Heggelke edged Blake Engebresten (Central Square) in a tense 3-2 semifinal, but could not keep up with B’ville’s Kevin Paul in the finals and took a 13-5 loss. Grome had a similar path, getting a tough 4-3 semifinal win over C-NS’s Joe Copani before Pat Quinlan (Fayetteville-Manlius) beat him 3-0 in the title match on the way to Most Outstanding Wrestler honors.
Odae Badwan (126 pounds) earned third place when he beat F-M’s Luke Rufo 10-2 in the consolation bracket final. At 152, Matt Calascibetta got a 3-1 decision over B’ville’s Steve Petrelli and also finished third.
Jon Stefano (138 pounds) took fourth place, as did Dalton Elias at 182 pounds. Mike Linton took sixth place at 113 pounds, with Zach Valerino (285 pounds) also in the sixth spot.
West Genesee had a tune-up for the Class AA meet by hosting Central Square last Wednesday night, earning plenty of points but taking a 48-33 defeat to the Red Hawks.
Grome opened with a 17-2 technical fall over Max Emond. Two matches later, Liam Kotas (145) pinned Nate Baskall in 1:50, while Calascibetta shut out Josh Bliss in a 12-0 romp.
WG stayed close thanks to Elias pinning Justin Lanning in 3:18 and Caleb Blaczienski, at 220, pinning D.J. Patchen at the end of the second period.
But Central Square, trailing 27-20, pulled in front for good by claiming each of the next four matches with three pins and one decision. Thus, Heggelke’s 44-second pin of John Fentress only meant that Red Hawks’ margin would be a bit smaller.
With the sectional B and AA meets behind them, both WG and Marcellus will have its top wrestlers ready for the overall sectional championships this Saturday at SRC Arena, which starts at 10 a.m.
